


you touch my mind

by orphan_account



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Enthusiastic Consent, Hand Jobs, Love, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Safer Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 15:32:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7393174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Can I touch you?” Bitty asks, reaching out slightly to invite Jack closer. Before their first time together, Bitty thought he might be self conscious but Jack looked at him like he looked delicious and Bitty found himself too focused on Jack to really think about himself. Jack is looking at him like that again.</p>
<p>Jack steps up into his space and nuzzles his face into Eric’s hair and murmurs, “Yes, please,” and it’s so polite and eager that Eric feels something warm inflate and clench up in his chest, full and perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you touch my mind

Jack mouth is pressing hot and wet against his neck and Eric feels everywhere, oozing down his spine and radiating out to tingle in each toe and fingertip. It crawls up his scalp, makes him shiver. He turns that sensation into a roll of his hips and his fingers are restless, it feels so good, so he digs them into Jack’s hair. He’s not 100% sure he’s completely inside his own body at this point. His eyes are closed and he feels hollow, he feels like his skin is vibrating around him, he’s felt like he’s about to faint since Jack had stepped into their Providence apartment behind him and put that gentle worn hand against his jaw and kissed him before the front door had even clicked shut. He can’t really blame Jack for wanting to get started on their week together over winter break.

They’d gotten to sitting on the couch eventually, but Eric doesn’t really remember that part. He was more focused on Jack’s hands on his hips, each thumb tucked into a belt loop on either side.

Eric feels like he’s barely managing to breathe when Jack shifts between Eric’s thighs so Eric can settle on his lap. Eric doesn’t have enough time to anticipate what’s about to happen before there’s friction up against his erection through his jeans. His brain sort of whites out in a flash before a series of oh my gods explodes in his mind, _oh my god that’s Jack’s cock_ and then he can’t think anymore because Jack has let out the sweetest groan with his mouth at Eric’s throat and it feels like that sound is moving into his chest right out of Jack’s mouth.

He’s briefly hyper-focused on the places where his hands are gripped up in Jack’s black polo, just under the collar at Jack’s shoulders, in between each brush against his cock. He can’t stand that the texture under his fingertips is the tiny coils of the fabric and not Jack’s skin and that feeling pulls a frustrated noise out of him. Eric tugs at the shirt and Jack immediately pulls back, starting to say, “Sorry--”

“No, it’s okay,” Eric manages, pulling again, “can we take this off you?”

Jack nods quickly and lets out a full breath while he gets his shirt off of himself and Eric only has the vaguest idea of maybe taking his own shirt off too before Jack is kissing him gently and closed mouthed with his hand at Eric’s jaw again. His index fingers slot at the tender spots just between his ear lobe and the thick muscles that run down each side of his neck to the dip between his collarbones. Jack’s fingertips clutch at him like letting go would break his heart so Eric presses closer, tucking his toes in under Jack’s thighs and his arms wrapping around to rest low on Jack’s back at the dip of his spine where his skin is damp with sweat. Eric grinds his hips against Jack and kisses at Jack’s upper lip. He pulls back and sheds his own shirt quickly and is back again in Jack’s arms but the warmth from Jack feels hot now. Jack has banded his arms around Eric’s waist and Eric slides his hands into Jack’s dark, thick hair. He cups Jack’s head in his hands. He has a brief moment of clarity where he realizes he needs to see Jack’s face.

“Is this okay, honey?” Eric asks, watching Jack blink through the dazed look on his face.

“Y-yes,” Jack says, with effort.

“Do you want to go further?” He has no trouble keeping his face neutral but he still concentrates, just to make sure. He would like to keep going, but Jack has said no to this question before and they do something else instead and that’s always nice, too. Eric doesn’t want to let a careless facial expression make Jack think that he has any expectations.

“Yes,” Jack says, more solidly this time, after a moment. Eric appreciates that Jack gives it thought. He knows Jack sometimes takes longer to process things internally. Satisfied with his answer, Eric rolls his hips against Jack a few times, just watching his face, looking into his eyes. His mind points out the fact that Jack is looking right back into Eric, seeing him, and it makes him feel high.

“Do you want to fuck me?” Eric asks him, going still again, stopping the distraction.

“Yes,” Jack breathes and he bucks his hips up into Eric and his eyes go slightly hazy and Eric feels a striking urge to take care of him.

“Come on,” Eric says, clambering off of the sofa, knees popping softly, grabbing Jack’s hands and tugging him up onto his feet. He pulls Jack down the hallway into the master bedroom with the heat of Jack’s gaze on the back of his neck. He guides Jack to the bed and then toes off his own shoes. “You too,” he says firmly, letting go of Jack’s hand to turn towards him and shuck off his own jeans and briefs. Jack immediately does as suggested and looks at Eric, and his eyes are as intense as they always are when they do this but it still shocks him and he still feels it all over him like Jack’s gaze is reaching out and touching him just by taking in his image.

Jack’s erection is beautiful and flushed and his pubic hair is so dark against the palest part of Jack’s skin. The toned muscles in his hips and thighs make Eric’s knees weak. There’s an indent from the button of his pants turning red down beneath Jack’s bellybutton and Eric wants to kiss it.

“Can I touch you?” Eric asks, reaching out slightly to invite Jack closer. Before their first time together, Eric thought he might be self-conscious but Jack looked at him like he looked delicious and Eric found himself too focused on Jack to really think about himself. Jack is looking at him like that again.

Jack steps up into his space and nuzzles his face into Eric’s hair and murmurs, “Yes, please,” and it’s so polite and eager that Eric feels something warm inflate and clench up in his chest, full and perfect.

Eric grins, reaches onto his tiptoes. He folds his arms and rests his hands against Jack’s chest, like he did the first time they kissed. Like he did in the first of their many perfect moments, in the memory he replayed on loop all summer in his parent’s house in Georgia. He went back to that memory, not the first time he let himself think about how much he felt for Jack, but the first time he didn’t stop himself at some point, the first time he got to swim in those feelings. The depth of it still fills up all the empty spaces inside him. When Jack looks at his face like he’s perfect, he feels perfect. He tilts his head up, presses a kiss against Jack’s cheek, and says, “I really love you, Jack.” Jack’s expression is so soft and Eric wants the two of them to melt together.

“I love you,” Jack breathes, and it barely makes a sound but Eric’s eyes lock into Jack’s lips mouthing the words and his mind supplies a memory of Jack saying those words against Eric’s inner thigh.

Eric kisses him again, his mouth closes around Jack’s top lip. Jack’s mouth drops open and Eric just barely slips his tongue inside to touch at Jack’s teeth. He steps away and drops onto the bed, rolling to the middle and resting his head against the pillows, lying on top of the sheets. Jack is already crawling in next to him when he gets there so Eric places his hand at Jack’s waist to guide Jack down next to him, face to face. Jack’s head hits the pillow and Eric finds himself stuck smiling at Jack’s own shy, yearning smile. Eric wants to make him feel good, wants to be touching him. He kisses at Jack’s collarbone and his hand slides down to the hair at the base of Jack’s cock. Eric grips the base of him and squeezes gently. Jack wheezes. He grips Eric’s hip and then palms at his ass and Eric drops wet kisses up Jack’s throat, just holding his hand around Jack for now. Jack gets overwhelmed sometimes but letting him get used to each sensation seems to help, so Eric goes slow. He kisses the scar on Jack’s chin that barely shows anymore and then just rests his nose against Jack’s, faces aligned, his mouth pressing lightly at the corner of Jack’s.

Eric is so, so hard but the ache is pushed in to the back of his mind. Eric starts a slow pace with the hand on Jack’s cock, shallowly on just the shaft, not quite reaching the head yet. All he can think about is Jack’s tiny hot pants on his cheek, and Jack pulsing in his palm, and the feeling of the muscles in Jack’s calves twitching where they’re tangled up with Eric’s. All he can think about is the way Jack’s skin seems to buzz, the way his body always turns toward Eric, always seeks him out like Jack wouldn’t know what to do with himself if Eric wasn’t there to align with. Jack’s face is so open and so vulnerable and Eric is consumed by the urge to take care of him forever.

Eric keeps his hand slow around Jack’s dick and his other hand slides up Jack’s torso to thumb at his nipple, fingers tucked between Jack and the bed. He pulls his head back so Jack can really look at his face.

Eric moves his spare hand so his fingers perch on the shelf of Jack’s collarbone and he takes a long look at Jack’s expression. Jack looks like there’s nowhere he’d rather be, but Eric wants to make sure he’s reading Jack’s expression right. “Good?”

Jack nods, then swallows because he knows that’s not good enough, that he needs to consent in words, and croaks, “Yeah.”

“More?”

“Uh huh,” Jack manages, letting out a huff of breath at the idea. Eric drags his hand in a longer stroke on Jack’s cock, and Jack’s long exhale makes his fingers tingle. He tightens the circle of his fist and strokes him again, pulling up enough that his palm tugs at Jack’s foreskin on the upstroke, and reveals the pretty head of Jack’s cock on the way down. Jack gasps and then makes a noise in his throat when Eric’s strokes up again and glides his thumb across the wet slit at the tip of his cock. “More,” Jack breathes.

Eric picks up the pace then, but asks, “Do you still want to fuck me?”

“Yes,” Jack affirms, hands grabbing at Eric’s waist.

“Then tell me if you’re gonna come, honey,” Eric says and slides his left hand from Jack’s collarbone to the base of Jack’s cock and uses his right to focus at the tip Jack’s erection, foreskin shifting across the sensitive head. Jack whines like he wants to follow the instruction but isn’t sure if he’ll be able to manage it, then goes quiet, just panting and digging his fingers into the meat of Eric’s ass.

After less than a minute, Jack’s hips buck and he makes an urgent noise in his throat. Eric moves in and kisses him lightly, lifts his right hand away and squeezes lightly with his left before moving both to Jack’s waist. “Good,” Eric sighs and this time it’s not a question. Jack shudders, tries to slow his breathing and his eyes flutter open again. For several moments Jack looks into Eric’s face, gathering himself before he sucks in a deep breath and slides the fingertips of one hand to rest at the part of Eric’s ass and asks, “Can I?”

Eric grins and bites his lip and quotes Jack from earlier, “‘yes, please.’” He rolls away from Jack to pluck their bottle of lube and a condom out of the nightstand. When he returns, he rolls on top of Jack and settles with his head on Jack’s chest. For a moment, Eric enjoys the feeling of Jack’s skin. He can hear Jack’s heartbeat, looks up and to see the flutter of skin at Jack’s neck moving in time, feel Jack’s hands come up to rest in Eric’s hair.

Jack doesn’t demand with his hands off the ice. Not with Eric, at least. His touch is only a touch and sometimes a suggestion. Now, Jack suggests by moving his hands down the back of Eric’s head to cup the back of his neck, not pulling, and Eric obliges, shifting up for a sweet kiss. Eric’s lips are tender from the kisses earlier and finds himself appreciating Jack again, the way his instinct is to be so gentle with him. Jack uses his tongue to just barely caress the roof of Eric’s mouth and Eric’s heart flips in his chest.

He props himself up with elbows on the bed on either side of Jack’s head, pulling away as Jack takes the lube from him. Jack tips some onto his fingers over Eric’s back. Jack breaks the kiss to breathe heavily against Eric’s mouth as two of his wet fingers touch at Eric’s entrance.

“Bits,” Jack whispers, “Are you ready?”

Eric’s breath shudders and anticipation tingles down his spine, to his groin and the place where Jack is putting light pressure at his rim. “Yes, yes, two, yes,” he whispers, and then those two slick fingertips are pressing into him, and all at the same time, the sensation is familiar and its so much and it feels so, so good that his arms shake and a whine escapes from him.

Jack eases those fingers in slow, deep, and Eric clenches around him to intensify the feeling. The muscles in his thighs spasm when Jack slides out and when he pushes back in, Eric’s arms shake. He lowers himself onto Jack’s chest, lowers his arms so his hands can rest at Jack’s ribcage and pants into Jack’s neck. Jack’s spare hand strokes his back, rising up to grasp at his hair, grabs at his thigh, urging his legs to spread to either side of Jack’s hips. Jack keeps moving his slick fingers in and out of him and touching and touching all over him and Eric is not one to struggle with being present but all the same he doesn’t think he could leave this moment if he tried. On the next stroke in, Jack kisses his temple and adds a third finger and that’s enough for Eric to feel the stretch. It burns. It’s vicious. It makes him want more.

After a minute with three, Eric reaches back and encourages Jack to tuck his pinky inside although he can’t get it too deep at this angle. With four fingers stretching him now, Eric can’t help but grind his dick down against Jack. “Fuck,” he groans lightly, and now Jack is rocking up against him in time with the tiny thrusts of his fingers and he feels restless and hot. Jack is kissing the sweaty hair at the top of his head and Eric can’t wait anymore, right now he wants Jack more than he’s ever wanted anything. “Enough, I want you,” he manages, raising his head to look up into Jack’s adoring face. Eric goes a little breathless at the sight.

Jack is handsome, he always has been, and the way his gaze seems to reach out and envelop Eric is overwhelming. _He loves me_ , Eric remembers, _he’s mine_. Jack looks at him like he’s every mote of dust in a stunning nebula, like Eric is somehow responsible for every particle making up everything. Jack is looking at him like he fills the incredible spaces between Jack’s atoms. Jack is looking at him like Eric is the universe, like Eric is his context, like Eric is the very fabric of reality. Nothing else exists for a moment or maybe forever because time is gone, too. This is broken by an enormous, painful, perfect feeling that inflates in Eric’s heart, chokes his breath, forces tears into his eyes. The feeling barely fits inside him and he never wants it to stop.

Jack’s fingers pull out of him and Jack wipes his wet hand on the sheets but he never looks away from Eric’s face. Eric breathes out heavily at the loss, but rises upright, still sitting low on Jack’s abdomen and reaches behind himself for Jack’s cock. Eric’s mouth twitches like it wants to smile. The noise Jack makes in his throat pops the bubble of that huge feeling and it dissolves into something that sparkles and fuels his desire to give Jack everything he needs, to make Jack feel so good, too. Eric walks back on his knees a step so he’s lined up right and asks Jack’s consent once more, “Ready?”

Jack rests one hand on Eric’s thigh and tucks the other in the crease where his leg becomes his hip, frames Eric’s erection with the L of his thumb and fingers.

“Yeah,” he sighs, starry eyed, focused on the flushed tip of Eric’s dick where precome is smeared. There’s a matching smudge near Jack’s belly button. The hand on Eric’s thigh slides up to grip at his hip.

“Okay,” Eric says, and he rips open the condom packet, dropping lube in the tip before he rolls it onto Jack. He spreads a generous layer of lube over that, and tries to press the excess up into himself with his fingers. Finally, Eric lines himself up and presses down slow and firm until his rim engulfs the tip of Jack’s cock. Jack lets out an _ah_ and his fingers twitch at Eric’s hip but Eric doesn’t notice because he isn’t aware of anything but the light stretch and pounding of his heartbeat in the nerves of his ass and is that Jack’s heartbeat or his, or have they matched up? Have they synced up perfectly? Eric’s eyes fall closed. He lets gravity pull him down onto Jack until he’s all the way inside and Jack is making this long, delicate _ahhh_ like he can’t control it and Eric feels that sound in his dick. _Oh_ , Eric thinks, because he’d forgotten his own dick, and he wants a hand on himself but he clenches at the thought and then, “Ohhh--” because Jack is so deep inside him and he needs a minute just to take in the feeling.

Eric feels stretched so wide and full and complete. It’s overwhelming but still perfect, and the nerves in his ass feel like they’re humming around Jack’s cock. Jack feels thick and warm, and when Eric clenches, the sensation flicks and flashes up his spinal cord like a live wire.

He opens his eyes, brings his hands to rest on Jack’s pecs for leverage, leaning forward slightly to get a good angle and then he lifts up, _ah_ , and lowers, _ohhhhh, yes_. Eric looks into Jack’s face, and Jack seems to know what Eric is going to ask because he nods and jerks his hips up into Eric’s. Eric lifts up again, then down, and up again, and down, nice and slow because he wants Jack to bask in that pure, syrupy pleasure, wants Jack to feel where is cock is slipping and dragging against the inside of Eric, wants Jack to feel so good that when he finally comes it catches him by surprise. He wants fiercely to take good care of Jack. Each time Eric rises up, pauses tight around the tip of Jack’s cock, a sharp, sweet sound bursts out of him and Eric may as well give up food and water and oxygen because that sound could keep him alive. That sound could make him immortal.

Eric quickens the pace gradually, sucking up all of Jack’s sweet noises, until he’s bucking his hips, barely lifting off Jack’s cock because he can’t maintain this speed if he does. His thighs and calves are twitching because it feels so good but he can’t think about that right now because he’s looking at Jack’s tender pink lips and how he wants to taste them but he can’t reach right now and then none of that matters anymore because Jack is saying, “Bits, Bits-- Fuck--” and coming inside him, dick pulsing, body gone rigid, looking at him, eyelids fluttering prettily like he can’t quite bear to close them because it means he can’t see Eric’s face.

Eric lets out a long breath, slows but keeps fucking himself down on Jack until Jack’s body goes limp and he lets out a low whimper, trying to catch his breath, and then Eric stills. He feels something like satisfaction, but thicker and sweeter, slow moving and sticky like molasses. He relaxes forward, anchors himself down on Jack, chest to chest; feels Jack starting to go soft inside him. “You’re so beautiful, honey,” he says, cheek on Jack’s shoulder, just looking up at his face. He can’t help himself. Jack is objectively beautiful, but Eric has gotten to see Jack’s fragile, gorgeous heart. He knows sex requires deep, unshakable trust for Jack, and the way he opens up and lets Eric hold the most vulnerable part of him like a pearl from a clam is what strikes Eric as truly beautiful. _He trusts me._ They trust each other.

Jack’s eyes go wet and Eric knows what Jack is feeling because he’s feeling it too. “I love you,” he tells Jack. Jack’s eyes go even rounder. He blinks hard and shudders in a breath, swallows thickly. Eric props himself up on an elbow again, reaches out to swipe away a tear that threatens to spill, smiling fondly and Jack laughs, mouth spreading into a grin. Eric traces his index finger down Jack’s cheek to his smile and finds himself smiling back.

“I’m in love with you,” Jack finally replies, looking up at Eric and Eric falls into the look on his face, Jack’s eyes dark with something like desire but sweeter. Kinder. Something endless and without exception. Like even the ugly parts of Eric are precious, like he’ll love him no matter how much time shapes him, like he wants to keep Eric forever.

Eric shifts in his mindlessness and Jack lets out a quick breath and his grin shrinks into a little smile. He looks shy. “Can I touch you?” Jack asks him.

“Yes,” Eric nods. Jack’s hand comes up to grip the base of Eric’s dick, still mostly hard. Eric leans back, gasping, hitching his hips forward towards Jack’s hand, ass shifting around Jack, reaching behind him to prop himself up arms locked with his hands on Jack’s thighs. “Ye-es,” he breathes, and he doesn’t look away from Jack’s face. He watches how Jack’s eyes are flitting all over where Eric has displayed himself.

Jack pulls his hand away to drip some more lube into his hand from the bottle found in the rumpled sheets beside them. This time, Jack brushes his knuckles against the underside of Eric’s dick, and Eric’s thighs spasm, squeezing Jack’s hips. Jack finally grips him firmly, giving him one slick stroke before wiping the excess lube from his hand on the sheets for a second time. Eric smiles at Jack acting out his knowledge of Eric’s preference. “Scoot up the pillows,” Eric says, and Jack hugs Eric to him and moves them together, slouching back against the headboard and now they’re both upright.

“Much better,” Eric smiles and kisses him, eyes slipping shut. Jack hums in agreement and smiles into their kiss when he puts his hand back around Eric and the friction is perfect this time. Eric would say something about how _of course Jack is smug about his flawless technique_ but it feels incredible and Eric considers that Jack might be entitled to some smugness. Jack’s other hand is at Eric’s waist and Eric’s arms are folded up between them again, fingers twitching on Jack’s shoulders when Jack picks up the pace, hand making a wet sounds with each pass. Eric lets himself make sounds up against Jack’s mouth. Jack is making him feel so, so good and he wants Jack to know it. Jack’s hips make a tiny thrust up into him, cock showing interest again, and his hand stills so Eric can pump up into it. Eric moans and fists his hands in Jack’s hair. “Yes, yes, yes,” he half chants, half whines, hips moving forward into Jack’s hand and back onto Jack’s thickening cock.

Jack groans and taps at Eric’s hip, slowly pulls out and discards the used condom for a new one and then adds lube over the protection. Eric briefly opens his eyes and perches over Jack’s erection, angling it just right. “OK?” he checks, and when Jack confirms, Eric lowers himself again onto Jack, who groans and sucks on his neck. Jack’s spare hand wraps around Eric’s back, pressing them chest-to-chest. His hips rock more fluidly then, moving in and out of Eric instead of just shifting inside him. Eric feels it all the way through him. Pure, bright pleasure shoots up his spine, bringing every nerve in him to life, making his blood rush in his ears. Eric wraps his arms around Jack’s neck, trying to bring them even closer and Jack kisses at his neck so soft that Eric can’t feel anything in his body but bliss. His eyes have closed again and his world is shrunk down to Jack and the places where Jack is touching him. Jack’s mouth kissing that spot by his jaw that makes his feet flex, one of his hands huge and hot on his back, the other making a perfect tunnel for his cock when his hips come forward, Jack’s dick stretching him open, lighting up his nervous system, making him feel like he’s going to vibrate his own body apart. He smells Jack’s sweat and deodorant and the scent left behind by his shampoo, he can barely hear anything over his heartbeat in his ears, but his brain fills in the sound of Jack’s breath which he can feel against his neck and then Jack slides his hand from Eric’s back to grab his ass and its so much that Eric shakes and shakes and chokes out, “Oh,” and “Jack--” and he doesn’t need to tell his hips to buck into Jack’s tightening grip because they’re already doing it and the muscles in his pelvis tighten up and he’s almost, almost, just about to come.

Eric arches his back and Jack keeps fucking and fucking him, nudging up against his prostate now and Eric chokes off a whine because his whole body tenses up and Jack is pulling the orgasm out of him with his hand and pushing it out from inside with his dick. Every muscle in him feels like its spasming and there’s heat pooling in his ass and his groin and in the small of his back and something bright and tingling is bursting and bursting endlessly along his spine and down each of his limbs, his toes are curling in the sheets, hands curling into fists, ass clenching and clenching around where Jack is moving inside him. Jack’s hand flies over Eric’s dick until there’s nothing left in him to ooze onto Jack’s stomach and then he slows and loosens his grip, but he never stops fucking up into him steadily, perfectly.

“Yeah,” Eric cries, “please don’t stop,” and even though there’s nothing leaking from his dick anymore, he feels like he’s still coming and coming and his skin feels so hot, every tiny hair on his body standing alert and his blood is roaring in his ears and he feels like his orgasm is never going to end as long as Jack keeps doing exactly what he’s doing.

Jack manages it for a handful of long, gorgeous moments before he’s coming himself and moaning softly and pressing his face into the part of Eric where his neck becomes his shoulder. When Jack finally slows and settles deep inside him, Eric collapses against Jack and nuzzles against the side of his head. Eric’s chest is heaving, and he lets it, just trying to suck up as much oxygen as he can. His whole body is twitching with echoes still and it has all been so intense that his mind can’t quite create a coherent thought, can’t quite manage to do anything but feel what he’s feeling.

After a minute, or maybe several, Jack’s hands start to pet over his skin, soothing all the keyed-up nerves he can reach. He rolls them over and Eric sighs, relaxes, his back all pressed against the cool sheets. His senses are so worn bare that he feels like he doesn’t quite fill up the inside of his body, like the passing of his orgasm has left empty space behind inside him. Jack settles gently, heavy on top of him and starts brushing kisses all over his face, because Jack is perfect. “Are you OK, baby?” Jack says, and Eric’s love for him blooms into those spaces inside, grounding him and steadying his breath.

Eric nods, smiles, slides one hand around to rest between Jack’s shoulder blades, moves the other to tangle in Jack’s hair, replies softly, “I’m great. Are you OK?”

“I’m great, too,” Jack echoes, smiling too, kisses him again on each cheek, and then at the corner of his grin. Eric doesn’t know if its possible to be happier than he is right now, until Jack says, “Wait here, I’m going to start the bath.”

 

When Jack returns, Eric feels dirty with dried sweat and come and lube all over him, but he still feels too weak to move. Maybe he’ll be able to by tomorrow. “Jack,” he says seriously, “you gotta carry me.”

Jack’s eyebrows start to come together, so Eric explains, face going soft, “I can’t even sit up! That was the best thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Jack relaxes and his cheeks go pink. He laughs lightly and scoops Eric up easily. “I’ll take care of you. You'll like this part, too.”

He walks them to the bathroom and lowers Eric into the tub, which is nearly full with water, faucet still running. Jack turns it off and settles in behind him so that Eric can melt in the steaming water. The loofah, bubbly with soap is too rough for his sensitive skin to handle right now, so he insists Jack use his hands to spread Eric’s body wash all over him. The sensation is just as vivid, but soft, tender, intimate.

This is Jack’s favorite part, the comedown, the aftercare. They’ve talked about it but it’s obvious anyway by the way Jack savors each soothing pass his hands make over Eric’s skin. He falls into it, similar to the way he falls into hockey, consumed by the moment entirely, focused, dedicated to his task. Jack’s patient devotion inspires Eric to love it, too. He basks in his happiness, feels the oxytocin thrum through him.

Jack’s hands rinse away the soap from his body, and then scoot him forward in the tub so he can lower Eric back into the water and wet his hair, let a hand on the back of his neck keep his face above the surface. Eric’s ears are submerged and the world is silent but for his own steady heartbeat, the whoosh of his breath in and out of his lungs. The sea foam green of the walls is reflected in the water and bounced around the room. It casts a subtle tint on Jack’s face, makes Eric feel like he’s in a fairy tale. He can see Jack, upside-down from this position, smiling at him softly, closing in to press a kiss to his forehead. Jack’s other hand comes to his face, thumb spreading water across one cheek, then stroking the underside of his chin and the very top of his throat, so sweet and gentle. He feels valuable. He feels safe.

Yes, Jack makes Eric love this. Jack makes Eric love everything about him.


End file.
